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FOOTBALL BOOKS TO LOOK OUT FOR IN 2014

In a World Cup year, it is no surprise that 2014 will bring a surge of football titles to bookstores and online retailers.

Among the highlights are new autobiographies from Trevor Brooking and Terry Venables, both published by Simon & Schuster, a biography for Yellow Jersey of England legend Bobby Moore by Matt Dickinson, the chief sports correspondent of The Times, and Fergie Rises (Aurum Press), in which Michael Grant, chief football writer of The Herald newspaper in Glasgow, studies the early years of Sir Alex Ferguson's managerial career at Aberdeen.

Bobby Moore collects the Jules Rimet Trophy
from The Queen at Wembley in 1966

Fans of Jose Mourinho will delight in an illustrated celebration of his career due to be published by Headline in time for next Christmas. Before that, headlines will doubtless follow when a controversial book on the Chelsea manager written by Spanish journalist Diego Torres is published in English by HarperSport.

Prepare to Lose, as was its title in Spain, made the sensational claim that Mourinho broke down in tears when David Moyes was announced as Manchester United's new manager, having convinced himself that Sir Alex Ferguson would nominate him to take charge as his successor at OId Trafford. The claim was dismissed as "completely false" by Mourinho's agent.

Ronald Reng, whose study of the life and death of the former Germany goalkeeper, Robert Enke, won William Hill Sports Book of the Year in 2012, returns with a revealing history for Simon & Schuster of the Bundesliga, from its difficult infancy in the post-War years to its status today among the world's biggest leagues.

A raft of titles timed to coincide with the World Cup finals in Brazil includes Futebol Nation (Penguin), a history of Brazil through the prism of football written by David Goldblatt, author of the acclaimed global football history, The Ball is Round.

Look out, too, for a revised and updated version of the Alex Bellos classic, Futebol: The Brazilian Way of Life (Bloomsbury), and Golazo! (Quercus), a new book in which Uruguayan author Andreas Campomar examines how football shaped the development of Latin America in political, economic and cultural terms as well as in a purely sporting context.

There is no one figure, of course, more readily identifiable with football in Brazil than Pelé, whose thoughts on the game are passed on with the help of Brazil-based journalist Brian Winter in Why Soccer Matters (Penguin).

In Thirty-One Nil (Bloomsbury), the journalist James Montague describes what the World Cup means in some of the world's most remote football outposts, the nations right at the bottom of the football food chain, whose quest for a precious place in the finals begins long before the major players have even thought about their route to the top table. The title commemorates the record scoreline in a World Cup qualification match, when Australia beat American Samoa by that score in April 2001.

And given that they are almost bound to play a part at some stage, Ben Lyttleton, who has written about European football for the Guardian and Sunday Telegraph among others, examines the art and psychology of penalty kicks in Twelve Yards (Bantam Press).

Jonathan Wilson

Later in the year, but with the potential to be perfectly timed depending on what happens in Brazil, Orion books will offer the latest from Jonathan Wilson, the acclaimed expert on the evolution of football tactics, who turns his eye to the history of football in Argentina in Angels With Dirty Faces.

Here is The Sports Bookshelf's month-by-month guide to a selection of other football books due to appear in 2014.

February

When Football Was Football: Swansea (by Neil Palmer) and Crystal Palace (by Tom Hopkinson), published by J Haynes & Co.

How to Enjoy The World Cup, by Chris England (Old Street Publishing); Scotland '74: A World Cup Story, by Richard Gordon (Black and White); Bend It Like Bullard, by Jimmy Bullard (Headline); The 10 Football Matches That Changed The World, by Jim Murphy (Biteback); The Team of '66: England's World Cup Winners, by Jim Morris (Amberley); Best, Pele and a Half-Time Bovril: A Nostalgic Look at Football in the 1970s, by Andrew Smart (John Blake). When Football Was Football: Leicester City (by Ralph Ellis) and Charlton Athletic (by Mick Walsh), both published by J Haynes & Co.

June/July

Eight World Cups, by George Vecsey(Henry Holt); Brazil's Dance With the Devil, by Dave Zirin (Haymarket); Inverting the Pyramid (Revised & Updated), by Jonathan Wilson (Orion); The Three Degrees, by Paul Rees (Constable); George Raynor, by Ashley Hine (The History Press); Pep Guardiola - the Philosophy That Changed the Game, by Violan Miguel Angel (Meyer & Meyer).

August

In Search of Duncan Ferguson, by Alan Pattullo (Mainstream); Looking for the Toffees: Everton in the Last Season of English Football, by Brian Viner (Simon & Schuster); The World of the Football Annual, by Ian Pearce (Constable); The Final Season, by Nigel McCrery (Random House).

September/October

The Book of Football Quotations, by Phil Shaw (Ebury Press); The Biography of Manchester City, by David Clayton (Vision Sports Publishing); Roy of the Rovers, by Giles Smith (Century); The Bhoys Who Went to War, by Paul Lunney (Black and White).

ITALIAN BACKDROP FOR NEW CRIME NOVEL

Death in the High Cityis a new crime novel set in Bergamo, northern Italy.The novel is the first in a series featuring detective duo Kate Butler, a freelance journalist, and Steve Bartorelli, a retired Detective Chief Inspector who is of Italian descent.

Death in the High City, believed to be the first crime novel in which the beautiful and historic city of Bergamo provides the backdrop, is available from Amazon in paperback and as an e-book.

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